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Council approves funding medevac

Council voted Tuesday to contribute $1.5 million to keep medevac services going for at least a year.

After Suncor agreed to fund the service from June 1 to June 10, council and several industry partners have split the $3 million annual cost to see the Phoenix Heli-Flight’s service continue.

All councillors voted in favour of allocating the funding for medevac services, but Coun. Tyran Ault said it seemed like they were bailing out the province once again. Earlier this year council voted to offset the education tax implemented by the provincial government.

Coun. Allan Vinni argued that the province needs to treat the region better, as the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo contributes a great deal to their revenue.

“The province is just taking from this region and not giving back,” Vinni said.

While there was discontent from councillors, Mayor Melissa Blake said she felt more optimistic after a brief conversation with Alberta Health Services’ new CEO, Vickie Kaminski Tuesday afternoon.

Blake said AHS plans to continue their fee-for-service model for the next six months as they conduct a review of medevac services in Wood Buffalo.

“The review is important in terms of assessing what is the call frequency, what are the hours of day that that’s happening and is there a way, I guess, they can consider what their contribution should be,” Blake said.

“This is a 50/50 on the municipal industrial side, but I believe and I shared with her my desire was more utopian than that,” she said. “It would be a straight contribution that would be a third, a third, in the real expense of what the service is so we can have that dedicated service all year, every year, day and night.”